Despite multiple reports otherwise, President Trump now denies he referred to Haiti and African countries as “shithole countries” while complaining about immigration from those countries. The president had grown frustrated with lawmakers Thursday in the Oval Office when they discussed protecting immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and African countries as part of a bipartisan deal over young immigrants known as ‘dreamers’ who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children, according to several people briefed on the meeting. “Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” Trump had said, according to these people, referring to countries mentioned by the lawmakers. Trump then suggested that the United…

From Oliver Wang’s New York Times review of Erika Lee’s book The Making of Asian America: One of her most fascinating chapters, “Border Crossings and Border Enforcement,” delves into the little-​known but remarkable stories of how tens of thousands of Chinese and Japanese found ways into the United States despite being legally barred from immigrating. During what Lee calls an “exclusion era,” which began with the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, intrepid emigrants would hide in rail cars crossing in from Canada and Mexico or stow away on boats from Cuba and Jamaica. Trafficking Asians into the United States became a lucrative, multiethnic affair for numerous Greek, Italian, indigenous Canadian…

Remember the “terror babies” hysteria of a few years ago? It was propounded by some on the extreme Republican Right, including the especially loony Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert. According to this theory, pregnant women were coming to the US as tourists, having babies, and then returning with their newborns to their home countries, where they were raised to become terrorists. Because of a clause in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, originally enacted after the Civil War to give former slaves citizenship, anyone born in the US, regardless of the parents’ status, is recognized as a US citizen. So after decades of indoctrination, these “terror babies” would return to the…

This is a cross-post from MoreMediaNonsense Immigration from the EU will be one of the main issues in the next election and interestingly there are signs of movement from the Liberal Left commentariat on the issue see eg John Harris here on CIF: This year I visited Wisbech – where a third of the 30,000 population is now estimated to be from overseas – and what was happening there spoke loud truths about why free movement has become so politicised. For all that recently arrived families have started to settle, and their children are acquiring new, hybrid identities, there are still glaring problems. Young men from eastern Europe often live four…

Diogenes Andrade, a Chavista member of Venezuela’s National Assembly, vents: “Even if they call me xenophobic or whatever, enough is enough. I met a lot of Asians who were selling strawberries with cream in the street and now they have big businesses and mock our people. The State has to take control even if they complain ‘this atrocious Communism is killing us’, but what ‘atrocious Communism’? Enforcing the law. And if they don’t obey the law (and I’m not speaking only about Asians), there are other sectors that we already help them and if they don’t do their part, we have to kick them out of the country. If they…

With Speaker John Boehner and other House Republicans tying themselves in knots over immigration reform, I appreciated the refreshing honesty of hardline anti-reform Congressman Steve King of Iowa when it comes to any plan that would include a pathway to citizenship for immigrants who are in the US illegally. “It would hurt Republicans, and I don’t think you can make an argument otherwise,” King said. “Two out of every three of the new citizens would be Democrats.” Some might dismiss this as the rantings of a bombastic right-winger — but his take is mainstream theology among House Republicans. Thanks for saying what you really think, Congressman King. Update: AP reports:…

As you may recall, the reelection of President Obama last year with more than 70 percent of the Hispanic vote threw some Republicans into a tizzy. Fox News’s GOP mouthpiece Sean Hannity said he had “evolved” on the issue of immigration reform, and now supported a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants. Others, like House Speaker John Boehner, expressed a new-found desire to work with President Obama on the issue. A report issued by the Republican National Committee in March noted: If Hispanic Americans perceive that a GOP nominee or candidate does not want them in the United States (i.e. self-deportation), they will not pay attention to our next sentence.…

President Obama announced Friday that his administration will stop deportations of hundreds of thousands of young illegal immigrants brought to the country as children. The action applies to illegal immigrants age 30 or below who: • came to the United States under the age of sixteen; • have continuously resided in the United States for at least five years; • are currently in school, have graduated from high school, have obtained a general education development certificate, or are honorably discharged veterans of US armed forces; • have not been convicted of a felony or a significant misdemeanor. “This is not amnesty,” Obama declared. “This is not immunity. This is not…

Responding to other candidates at last week’s Republican debate who criticized a Texas law giving college tuition breaks to children of illegal immigrants, Governor Rick Perry said (quite sensibly): “If you say that we should not educate children who have come into our state for no other reason than they’ve been brought there by no fault of their own, I don’t think you have a heart. We need to be educating these children, because they will become a drag on our society.” As The Washington Post reports: The comment drew boos from thousands of Republican activists in the debate audience and reverberated across the GOP political landscape. Perry’s rivals have…

After what I’m sure was careful consideration, Michele Bachmann agreed with a questioner at a town hall meeting in Greenville, South Carolina, that US troops should be redeployed from South Korea to south Texas to deal with illegal immigration from Mexico. “How do you solve it? You build a barrier, a fence, a wall — whatever you want to call it. You build it,” Bachmann said. “As president of the United States, every mile, every yard, every foot, every inch will be covered on that southern border.” I don’t know how much this would help prevent illegal immigration, but I think Kim Jong Il now has a favorite candidate for…